ACT's radical plan: halve MBIE's workforce

WEB Act reckons it could reduce staff by 50% using stop-work notices

Party says MBIE is "underperforming" and has staff who "aren't doing anything"

The ACT party is targeting the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in its latest policy announcement, proposing to halve the ministry's workforce.

In a press release, ACT said it would aim to cut the more than 6000 staff at MBIE by 50 per cent using stop-work notices.

"MBIE is a bloated bureaucracy that is costing taxpayers billions of dollars," said ACT leader David Seymour.

"We can't keep throwing money at a failing organisation. We need to make MBIE more efficient and effective, and that means cutting staff." ACT said it had identified a number of areas where MBIE could reduce its workforce, including: *

Eliminating duplicative roles and functions

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Reducing the number of managers and supervisors

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Outsourcing non-core activities

The party said the cuts would save taxpayers billions of dollars and would not result in any loss of essential services.

"We are confident that we can reduce the size of MBIE without compromising the delivery of essential services," said Seymour.

MBIE has not yet commented on ACT's proposal.